Technological Turnabout
Meeting of Man and Machine The clearing behind the guild was calm and still, no wind blowing, but the sun beating down brightly onto the newly restored grassy plain. Takeshi sat patiently his hands placed on the earth and meditating to sense the variety of metals found within the ground. His last battle with Damien left his legs a bit tired, having just healed from the three day break they were allowed between the matches. He was intrigued to see what his new opponent had in store for him, already intrigued by her composition from the moment she joined the guild, as he himself was vastly knowledgeable of technology and was curious to see her programing in action. With patience he planned his means of attack, wanting to truly flex his strategical mind this time around to be able to fully bring out the power of him and his opponent. His eyes opened quickly when the sound of metal gears moving alerted him to his opponent. Sending a pulse of magic through the earth to lay out his traps beneath the field, Takeshi stood up with a smile and a soft wave. “Hello there Clara, nice to finally meet you. I hope you’re ready for some fun; you think you’re up for it?” The clearing that had hosted both of the battles during the second round seemed completely restored, it was astonishing to think that the damage caused by two battles in a row could be restored as easily as it had been. In any case Clara Scarlet stood ready in front of Takeshi observing his appearance before bowing in respect to her opponent, "It is an honor to finally meet you Takeshi, I may ask for your assistance in discovering the exact nature of my being after the trials, as I myself lack the answers to that question; and the only individual I think may know the answer to it is feigning ignorance out of a sense of pride." As she finished speaking she stopped bowing standing straight, no sounds of moving gears could be heard from her as she awaited a response from Takeshi. "I will gladly help you out in discovering what lies under the hood of that tech of yours; I'd actually enjoy it so to speak. So glad I got your consent, perhaps I could even up some of your weapons systems if you'd like." Takeshi laughs out, brushing his hair out of his eyes. Pressing a few buttons on his bionic arm, Takeshi glances up at Clara, "Well despite your tech being older than what your apparent age is based off, I am not one to strike a child without provocation. So would you care to go first? Or would you like me to take the honor." "How kind of you, I'll gladly go first after all there is that one saying right? Ladies first?" As Clara said this she took a type of stance, a sort of adaptive stance one that would adapt and change over time, she decided it would be best to test the waters without her Machia Ex Deus's augments for a little bit, or at least not use her Titanic Arms augment as it was visibly "destroyed" in the last round, so she figured she'd use them later and catch Takeshi off guard. Her tail was hidden from sight but still in play. She needed to see how Takeshi would react and adapt accordingly, so using her natural physical strength would hopefully not backfire. As she finished her thought Clara charged at Takeshi using her shorter build to her advantage Clara attempted to launch several jab like punches to Takeshi's chest, gut, and jaw as a sort of opening play sort of testing the waters so to say. Takeshi smiles as the girl takes him up on his offer and switches her stance to one that looks like she was going to run towards him. Adjusting his Exo-GS suit and activating his ferus eques to give his body a coating of metal equal to that of a nuclear bomb plating. His exosuit protected him from the blow to the chest while his metal coating protected him from the gut shot. He only needed to move his arms up in an X formation to protect his face, feeling the metal of Clara's form and registering the metal composition of her body. Using his bionic arm, and the close proximity of Clara, he moved his arm to swing the jab around and aim him fist at Clara's head. Firing off a series of 3 lightning encapsulated bullets, Takeshi then jumps back to get some distance between them. He glances down and sees that his metal plating had disappeared from where Clara touched him. Hoping she was still conscious from the bullets fired at her head Takeshi asks, "You have a magic absorbing mechanism?" He them summons forth his sword and waits for her retort. Clara adjusted her positioning to respond to the sudden appearance of bullets, shifting backwards allowing the bullets to go over her by ducking under them, but alas one skimmed her forehead leaving no real injury at all due to her metal body. She open and closed her hands for a bit analyzing the rebound feeling she received from the exosuit, and the metal Takeshi used magic to create. Her inner mechanisms adjusted themselves accordingly in response to this data. Hearing Takeshi speak she responded, "I guess its gonna take a bit more force to break past that suit." She didn't deny Takeshi's claim of a magic absorbing mechanic. She then takes a defensive stance, "You let me get a shot at you, now its your turn attack me Takeshi, try and cut me down with that sword..." As she said this her tail was ready to respond once Takeshi got close enough it would react accordingly to attempt to disarm him and Clara would act from there. Takeshi gave a slight laugh at the bold words of the machine, though he attributed that to the machine’s programing for battle. He took a look at his Exo-GS, seeing that the metal was still intact, where as his ferrus eques had disappeared momentarily to absorb the impact of the initial jab. Hm…so it is true that she has a magic absorbing mechanism, as the metal created from my magic was absorbed, but the earthly metals of my suit remained intact. That shouldn’t be a problem, as I will just have to use my ferrokinesis to pull out the metals of the earth to create my weapons, or even pull off some of that plating on her mechanical suit. It’s molecular weight seems a bit more heavy than iron from what I felt, but it does seem to be ferrous and conductive… And it seems her magic absorption has a range to it, as my ferrus eques is still active from this range. Perhaps she needs to touch the magic to absorb it? She couldn't be absorbing it innately from the air; her systems would overload from constant absorbing the nature ethernano around us! That would make the most logical sense… Takeshi thinks as he recalls the metallic contact of her arms. He can sense a large mass of metal coming from her arms, as well as something metallic running down her back side. He makes a metal note of what he senses and realizes that she must be hiding some sort of weapon or attachment on her back. Not wanting to get too close too close to the girl, Takeshi puts his next play into action. First pulling down his ReconOptic Scanner for better vision and targeting system, he has it lock onto Clara’s form. Then, pressing down on his INDO cuffs he brings forth two grenades: a smoke and an incendiary. Throwing them with his free hand towards Clara, the incendiary grenade exploding first in an eruption of 2,800 degree flames that hopefully destroys the metal of the arms Takeshi assumed she would block with. Two seconds later the smoke grenade erupts into a dense cloud of black smoke that covered the area like a blanket. This provides cover for Takeshi to send his sword towards his opponent, using his ferrokinesis to make it fly with great speeds towards the locked on target Takeshi sees in the infrared illuminator of his scanner.'' Good luck trying to absorb a telepathic control, unless you want to come meet with my lightning bullets to short circuit your system, there is no way you are touching my head to absorb that magic…'' He thinks as he aims for the back of the girl with a horizontal arc slash, wanting to reveal the metal construct he is sensing, but also move the girl a few feet backwards towards a RCA grenade that he had sent underground with his pulse of magic at the very beginning of this fight. As soon as Clara would move to defend herself, Takeshi would press down on the button on his bionic arm to set off the grenade and damage the supporting structures of the robots legs. Clara grinned as she observed the tech Takeshi wielded came into play, She held out her arms as her Titanic Arms activated she moved her left arm it effectively protected her from the stream of flames that came from the incendiary grenade, as the flames raged against the arm it stood strong, not melting or weakening due to the temperature. The smoke screen would prove to be annoying to deal with but she didn't hear Takeshi moving, but was that really mean he didn't launch an attack. It didn't take long for her to figure out the answer to that question as her reflexes triggered moving her left arm again to block the horizontal arc slash, but she truly intended to remove the sword from play as the metal the sword struck phased the blade through the metal and then tightened around the blade. The metal of the Titanic arm seemed to quickly wrap around the blade covering it in metal, while she cannot absorb a telepathic control she could interfere with its signal strength, with the smoke as it was she hoped Takeshi couldn't see her doing this as if he didn't react quick enough she could very well succeed in restraining the blade. It also became apparent to note that she seemed to possess a sort of pulse to her own, what this meant exactly was unknown exactly but it did add a bit more to the mystery of the entity known as Clara. Takeshi's eyes widen in amazement at the speed of the girl's reflexes, and the maneuverability of the mechanical arms and how they were able to change shape to avoid his sword. Watching this through his scanner he quickly pulls back his sword before it was fully encased by her metal, noting the difficulty he had in getting control due to the physical interference caused by Clara. With his smokescreen still intact, Takeshi uses his Magnet Magic to reverse the polarity of the earth's magnetic field and cause him to levitate high up into the air to move physically above Clara about fifty feet. Sheathing his sword on his back for a brief moment he brings forth three frag grenades to drop down around Clara. During the time of their decent Takeshi uses both hands in a sweeping motion to pull on the metal surrounding Clara's body, pulling the small girl in the direction he was directing her early so that she is directly above one of the mines he laid earlier. Pressing down on the button to detonate the mine, his timing works out so that the explosion occurs directly below Clara's feet, as well as an explosion of flames, shrapnel, and debris above her in a seven hundred foot radius. Unsheathing his sword once more, he waits high up above to see the efforts of his explosive grenades, ready for the girl's counter.